


lotripping across the universe, part one.

by marginalia



Category: The Lord of the Rings RPF
Genre: Community: lotrips100, F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, Multi, Other, Wingfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-01-01
Updated: 2003-01-01
Packaged: 2018-10-10 21:40:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 33
Words: 3,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10448145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marginalia/pseuds/marginalia
Summary: 33 lotrips drabbles & variations in chronological order. All standalones. Anything multipart or crossover is uploaded as its own thing. Written 2003-2004. One may hope they get better as you go along.





	1. Waiting - Billy/Orlando

billy is neither hobbit nor child, but lately that's hard to remember when he's sleeping. he folds his arms tight across his chest, pulls up his knees, and tucks his feet together at the arches, as though trying to take up even less space. dreaming, he whimpers softly and you let your fingers dance across his spine, a light caress through his thin t-shirt until he's quiet again.

though curved around him, you keep your distance, allowing only your palm to rest warm on his shoulder. wishing he'd face you. wishing he'd let you touch him this long when awake.

ii.

orlando has taken to watching you carefully when he thinks you're not looking. behind those ridiculous contacts his gaze waits steadily for something in you to reveal itself, but you hide it away tidily under smiles and laughter and incredibly convoluted pranks with dom.

you've been there before. you know everything is temporary. you know how far to let people in, and more importantly, how to keep them out.

what you don't know is how to tell any of this to the boy whose face hides nothing. and when his eyes catch yours, you forget why you're hiding at all.

iii.

billy has prepared his face for the cameras. the laugh. the stories. the scolding of dom, who always tells too much.

but it's impossible to arrange a face for orlando, who pounces and mugs and never appears to care who sees.

orlando tackles, his palm landing on billy's chest. he hears billy gasp. feels billy's pulse speed up under the weight of his hand, and for a moment they forget. orlando glows and billy's nose crinkles: a reality that exists only in pictures.

as they turn to face each other, they fade into smiles that do not reach their eyes.


	2. First Time - Billy/Elijah

the first time you see him, his eyes are blurred from the flight and the champagne.

you touch, and white heat springs from the pads of his fingers and pools deep in your stomach.

you taste, while his kisses coat your mouth with the bourbon you're not yet old enough to be drinking.

you smell as the sweat drips from him, slick and sweet, while his fingers twist through the pillow and your hair.

you hear him, and you wonder how you lived this long without hearing your name uttered low with need.

the first time is not the last.


	3. Yes - Dom/Elijah

elijah loves the way the sun shines through dom's gunmetal eyes. it catches them just so when dom looks out onto the water and they glow from the inside. silver. and he shivers despite the heat when the eyes turn. lock on his own.

dom loves the way the wind from the sea draws out the sweet and salty scent of elijah. it taunts him, forcing him to wonder how elijah would taste if he placed his tongue. there. and wrote his truth along elijah's collarbone.

elijah glimpses dom's darting tongue. habit.

dom watches elijah's lips form one word.

yes.


	4. Strawberries - Billy/Miranda

Fresh from the shower, Miranda perches on the edge of the bed and twists her still damp hair up into a knot with one fluid motion. Turning from the window, Billy watches the rays from the sunrise catch already escaping tendrils and feels his breath catch in his throat.

Late that night, he will free her hair in a practiced move, strawberry scented curls tumbling. Straddling him on the wide bed she will reach up automatically to tuck a bit behind her right ear, but he will catch her wrist, pull her down, and stop her laughter with a kiss.


	5. Morning - Miranda/Liv

In the morning, Miranda is always awake first. Humming in the shower is her only protest against being upright. Commandeering the whole bed, Liv stretches lazily, rubs her eyes, and attempts to wish the alarm clock out of existence.

Later, in the kitchen, Liv attempts to sneak up on baby powder fresh Miranda, who whirls around at the last moment and punishes her with sticky orange juice kisses. Slipping back towards the toaster Miranda swats Liv on the bottom. "Get into the shower quick, before Orlando gets here and sees that you look prettier in boxer shorts than he does."


	6. Cold - Billy/Dom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lotrips100 'bitter' challenge.

Billy has never been this cold. Gritting his teeth in the flooded car park, he focuses all of his willpower on not shaking. The chill crawls around him, seeps into his bones, and bites at his muscles, which give up all pretense of listening to his brain and twitch in a futile attempt at generating heat.

Billy paces, setting mental goals. _Five more minutes, then I'll say something._ He pauses and wriggles his toes. _Five more minutes._ Then hands, warmer only in comparison, capture his, massaging from palm to fingertip. Grey eyes sparkle, and the bitter cold is driven away.


	7. Malevolence - Billy/Dom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lotrips100

Elijah collects words the way he does experiences. Nothing is good or bad; it’s just new - something fresh to flit around in his brain and twirl on his tongue until it is filed neatly into memory. At the record store some awful local band booms through the sound system and pounds at his brain as one word slips in his ear – malevolence.

It flits, twirls and files itself away, only to surprise him one day when it drifts out and clenches cold at his stomach as Billy and Dom tumble from Treebeard, fluent in a language all their own.


	8. Regal - Cate/Liv

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lotrips100

Cate isn't accustomed to having to ask for anything. For anyone. Not with words, anyway - just a studied gaze and her prey is captured and bound. It never takes long; they're just waiting for the look, the sign that they have been examined and found acceptable. They cannot hope for more than acceptable. Not from her. Cate is a regal, unusual beauty. She will last. Not like Liv. Liv is common, all flash and color, a temporary show. Cate examines her in sideways glances, catches her eye, allows a feral gleam to peek through. Liv will do. For now.


	9. The Collector - Viggo & the Fellowship

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lotrips100

Viggo's camera is as omnipresent on the set as his sword is throughout Wellington. Even Dom soon stops mugging for it. The resulting pictures are equally ubiquitous, visible as a collage but ignored in the particular. Like the purloined letter, Viggo's sin hides in plain view.

Only later, at the exhibition, do they truly see. The fellowship endures a collective punch in the stomach, the sudden nausea that comes with loss. Grabbing flutes of champagne, they examine their own images. In each, the spark has been sought and captured, a sacrifice to Viggo's never-ending collection of souls and secrets.


	10. Inertia - Cate/Miranda

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lotrips100

Given the chance, Miranda would sleep past noon, leave dishes festering in the sink, and pay her bills only when the collectors showed up in person, on her doorstep, and preferably after two pm.

Under an auspicious star, Cate falls into her life, orchestrates her world to function with minimal effort, and notes wryly that it's easier to change the world than to change Miranda.

Miranda digs her heels into the sheets as Cate moves skillfully above her. She arches, tastes the sweat on Cate's collarbone, and considers how lovely it is to let someone else do all the work.


	11. Insatiable - Viggo/Orlando

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lotrips100

Orlando has a voracious appetite, living his life in double time. He consumes the world daily, his golden ticket found in his impossibly wide smile. _The better to eat you with, my dear._ He feigns his lack of inhibition, not because he doesn't know the rules, but because he dares not waste the moments.

There are moments when he throws himself from great heights with little more than trust to catch him, and moments, not so different, when Viggo maps his skin first with the lens, then with his tongue.

Viggo knows more than one way to devour the world.


	12. Mordancy - John R-D

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lotrips100

He joked about the Elf. He never called him by name.

The Elf would pop in for the pointy ears, blue contacts, and golden wig that the girls would go mad for. The quickest of transformations and he was gone, while the Dwarf struggled on, enduring layers of glue and latex which masked him onscreen, then tore his face away after the day's shooting. A day like every other - the Elf would run gracefully and the Dwarf would lumber behind.

He clenched his teeth. Gimli's acrimony towards Elves was one thing for which John would never have to train.


	13. Yearn and Wonder - Cate/Miranda

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lotrips100

Cate watches, feigns disinterest or at least detachment as Miranda whirls through the lunchroom, all luminosity and freckles. She wonders if Miranda glows. Wonders if she could map the freckles. Wonders if she'd let her.

Cate.

There.

Oh. And it's here, the shiver and the heat, the flush rising, rosy fingers trailing up her belly, curling around her breasts. Just before they twirl out madly over her throat and up where all could see she pushes. Presses the color down. Hard. Legs together. Tight. And worlds explode behind her eyes.

She loses herself. Never her poise.

Cate smiles. Miranda wonders.


	14. The 'Damn' Dance - Fellowship

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lotrips100

"Loser buys next round?" asked Elijah, fretful.

"Obviously," said Dom. "We'll just add it to your tab. Save the trouble of finishing the game."

Billy smirked, "Sounds fair." Elijah rewarded him with what he hoped was a withering glance. He leaned across the table, lined up the shot, and sunk the cue ball.

"Dammit!" he screamed, jumping up in the air and landing with an anticlimactic "thump" as his Chucks smacked the sticky floor.

Dom and Billy doubled up with laughter. "What the hell was that?" Billy asked. "The Damn Dance?"

Elijah shook his head and called for another round.


	15. Taste - Dom/Elijah

Dom wonders what Elijah would do if he leaned over and licked him. Right now. One swipe from the base of his neck to the tip of his left ear. If he would jump and squeal and swat ineffectually at Dom, or if he would think it was part of a game, furrow his brow, and attempt to unravel the ephemeral rules.

Elijah's great mistake is assuming that rules exist to be followed. Dom thinks of them as tools - to be used only when advantageous and discarded when not.

Like now.

Dom sets aside the rules and tastes Elijah.


	16. (R)evolve - Billy/Dom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lotrips100

Dominic drifts through the universe, floating untethered. Sometimes faster, sometimes slower, he touches down for the briefest of moments to dance to the music of the spheres.

But freedom can be draining; energy and movement leave little room for serenity and peace. Spinning through a plutonian darkness he is grateful to feel a tug, a pull, direction and guidance allowing him rest.

Billy draws him in slowly, warms him gently, and brings him close with ever narrowing revolutions. Relaxing into the bonds Dominic tastes the sunshine on Billy's lips, trusting the pull of Billy to save him from the fall.


	17. Guardian - Sean A

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lotrips100

_When you love someone, you protect them._

And he does. He loves them all, his family, his friends, the fellowship. The three groups nestled, nebulous boundaries in his mind and heart. A part of his being always on the alert, always watching over them, and when the shields go up it's an urgent need, a visceral drive and there's no arguing with nature in that moment.

So when it's over, when the danger, be it perceived or real, is past, Sean laughs with the rest, tells the story first, mocks himself loudest, and hides his weariness behind a sheepish grin.


	18. Free Fall - Billy/Orlando

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lotrips100

Billy peers over the edge at Orlando in flight - he shoots down impossibly fast, then rebounds in a graceful arc. Billy reaches out without thinking, his other hand still viselike on the rail.

"C'mon, Bill! It's amazing!" Orlando grins at him, all slender limbs and blinding teeth as he scrambles back up onto the bridge and virtually knocks Billy over with a tremendous hug. "Go for it, man!"

Billy edges away from the depths of Orlando's eyes, then takes a deep breath and swan dives, relinquishing his hold on the earth and giving himself over to the dizzying fall.


	19. Fool's Gold - Billy/Cate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wing!fic. No, really.

Cate's wings are peach, sometimes blushing, sometimes sparkling with tiny flecks of gold. Billy runs his fingers along them, a slow caress; half expecting the gold to come off, dust on his hands. Wondering if it did, if butterfly-like she would be unable to fly. Away.

Curled cold on the floor in front of the open window, he imagines he's dreaming. He sees glitter in the glass and waits.

When she returns, Cate draws him to his feet, pressing her lips gently against his smooth shoulders and warming him with rays of the rising sun trapped among her feathers.


	20. Clipp'd - Dom/Elijah

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Winged AU

They'd been forming for a while, but Dom believed firmly in the power of denial. He took to showering and dressing in the dark, sliding silently into bed, barely sleeping, energy focused on not shaking, on never turning his back on Elijah.

Grateful for the growing chill in the air, Dom bound himself in layers of tight shirts and heavy sweaters. He willed the wings to retreat inside his body, muscles aching. Unexpected, their release came when his startled eyes caught Elijah's in the mirror, and the wings beat out a panicked rhythm matching Elijah's feet stumbling down the stairs.

::

Dom didn't speak and Elijah couldn't ask. Couldn't touch. Couldn't even stay. But pacing on the porch, the image of the dark grey wings and Dom's frightened eyes burned in his mind and he reconsidered. Slipped inside, fidgeted at the foot of the stairs, and pondered. For a moment he was jealous. He's the angelic one, so where were his goddamned wings?

He hears rustling and a low cry bitten back by sheer will. A soft grey feather drifts on an unseen current, and Elijah's stomach turns with pain and fear and sheer helplessness. Ashamed, he swallows hard and ascends.


	21. Cinnamon - Liv/Orlando

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lotrips100

He knows when she's near. A hint of cinnamon tickles his nose, the briefest of warnings before a low purr curls around his ear - "Orlando" - and warm breath ghosts along the back of his neck. He turns to her, offers a slow smirk at the sight of her heavy-lidded eyes and parted lips. "Now?"

"Always," her voice rich caramel. Hard kisses, tongues twining, soft click of teeth. He explores her hesitantly, then bites at her hip and is rewarded, her fingers twisting through his hair, her head thrown back. He smiles. Moves on.

She smells of cinnamon, tastes like caramel.


	22. Watching - Orlando/Sean B

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lotrips100

Orlando always rents the worst film in the video store. Sean can see it coming, groans as Orlando bounds over proudly displaying yet another straight to video treasure, barely a step above Kellie Martin and her _Lifetime_ oeuvre.

Orlando rents the worst movies, orders the greasiest pizza, and invites himself in to Sean's flat and life in one swift motion.

Orlando rents but Sean watches while Orlando invariably falls asleep on the couch using Sean's chest as a pillow. Sean laughs softly, a low rumble, and kisses the top of his head.

Orlando smiles in his sleep, still at last.


	23. Tumble - Dom/Miranda

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lotrips100 everyday item challenge.

it was witchcraft, for what else could it be? a flash and a twist and the shining mass of hair was up, knotted, held only by an ink pen, the magic wand.

he watched always, fascinated by the process, by the trick, by her.

sneaking behind her in rehearsal he gave in to temptation and tugged the pen from her hair. torn between mirth and guilt he watched curls spill over her shoulders, flying as she spun around, color high in her cheeks.

"you! of course." she said, laughing. "you must be punished."

his eyes sparkled. "is that a promise?"


	24. California Rain - Billy/Orlando

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lotrips100 book inspiration.

_"Normally, the urge to stomp in puddles is irresistible to me, but the numbness creeps up my legs and I need little encouragement to leave the puddles alone." --Wil Wheaton, "We Close Our Eyes", from Dancing Barefoot_

As they walk aimlessly after dinner, naturally umbrella free, the skies open up.

Billy steps off the sidewalk and into the middle of a lonely side street. Spreading his arms wide, he closes his eyes and bends back, half childlike glee, half a deity reveling in an offering.

The drops fall relentlessly, soon drenching them through, and Orlando isn't certain if his sudden chill should be blamed on the water running tiny rivulets down his back or the droplets caught in Billy's eyelashes as he turns to smile.

"C'mon, mate," Orlando says, his voice catching. "Let's get you warmed up."


	25. New Zealand Goth - Fellowship

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lotrips100, book scene challenge.

_"Then, they dress me. By the time they've done cinching up the corset and stabilizing my bustle, I'm in so many layers of black lace scarves and fringe and fishnet stockings that I could play strip poker for three weeks straight without baring my belly button." --Sarah Vowell, "American Goth", Take the Cannoli_

"Bend over," Billy commands, casting a quick eye around the room. "Hold on to the bed frame." Dom complies, and Billy tightens the corset, arm muscles straining.

Orlando leers at Dom. "Only a lady would wear a corset that ties in the back."

"Look up, dammit." Elijah nibbles his lip, concentrating as he applies Orlando's eyeliner.

"How'd you learn to do this, anyway?" Orlando asks.

"Hannah," Elijah shrugs.

Liv bursts in, neglecting to knock. "Oh!" she stops, startled in the doorway. "When you said you were dressing up I didn't think . . . "

Curtseying, Dom interrupts. "That we'd be prettier than you?"


	26. Difficult Thing - Billy/Dom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lotrips100 "Random sentence" challenge.

_"It's a difficult thing, Salmon Boy said after a long time. Salmon Boy whispered, It's a difficult thing for one man to love another man, whether they kiss each other or not." -- Sherman Alexie, "South by Southwest", The Toughest Indian in the World_

Here, Dom decided. If I was in a movie, this is where I would fall in love. If this was a movie, I'd love Billy, because he's here with me. Because he makes me laugh. Because we touch. Because people say our names as if we're one person.

I'm doing the best I can, Dom said, arm around Billy, to make you love me forever.

Billy rested his head on Dom's chest, listened to the thump thump thump of his heartbeat. You can't make me do anything, he said finally. It's a hard job, falling in love. But it's mine.


	27. Ebb and Flow - Billy/Cate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lotrips100

As Cate she is warm, fluid grace, but as Galadriel she is as if carved from ice, stars shining frozen and distant in her eyes. As Pippin he shivers and fears the elf witch, but as Billy he longs to feel the terrible power.

Away from the lights, stars dim and hide in the shadows of her face, the now-dark pools of her eyes. She arches above him as the rain pounds a rhythm on the roof, drowning their cry, then curls around him, fingers tracing an unknown pattern on his chest, still damp with their sweat.

Billy melts.


	28. In a minute there is time - Billy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lotrips100 poetry challenge.

Billy's losing time.

He watches the branches of the trees sweeping back and forth in the wind, listens to the creaking of the house, catches himself tapping the knuckle of his thumb against his chin like a metronome.

His phone rings. He glances idly at the name - Dom, of course - but doesn't answer. He wouldn't know what face to wear for Dom today.

Glancing back up at the clock, he sees the minute hand has swept around again.

He considers the possibility of motion. Progress. Leaving the damn chair. But the weight presses on his chest.

He sinks and drifts.


	29. This is how the world ends - Billy/Dom/Elijah

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lotrips100

With Dominic it's never a mystery. He announces the issue repeatedly and at full volume. He flares up; Elijah practices damage control and extinguishes the flame.

But Billy. Billy shuts down. Billy curls into himself like the roly-poly potato bugs Elijah remembers from childhood summers.

Elijah hovers in the doorway. Opens his mouth, then closes it again. A small voice in the back of his head congratulates him on his marvelous fish impression. Elijah fancies himself the mender, but with Billy he never knows where to start, which infraction requires the apology.

The weight of Billy's silence shatters the world.


	30. Somnambulist - Billy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lotrips100, some sort of spooky challenge, I expect.

_They drift and fall away._

Billy is poised to attack whoever - whatever - is taking them from him. Pocketing their souls, their joy, their life.

_They're all gone now._

He buried them, one by one, forcing the pain away with the rhythm and strain of labor. Once again, he's lost everything.

As they went, the house grew slowly quiet. They looked as if asleep, and he sees them still when he closes his eyes, sees them dreaming without breath before him.

He straightened their limbs, kissed their lips, laid them deep, prepared for revenge.

But he cannot bring it on himself.


	31. There Be Monsters - Billy/Dom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lotrips100

_Things are sometimes the way they appear._  
\--Michael Marshall Smith, Only Forward

Sometimes the sea looks like a dark plain. Sometimes it is.

Dominic knows this, one of those facts he can't remember not knowing. The ocean is a plain of salt and loam, rolling softly to Jeamland, and if you walk your lover across it with strong belief in the road and not the sea, he can fight the dark of his dreams with his fists.

The path creates itself before their feet, guiding them with hills and valleys. Billy doubts for the briefest of moments, but Dominic is strong beside him. The road ends, and they step into chilled blackness.


	32. Stormtossed - Billy/Orlando

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _The Fire's Stone_ AU

William grips the rail, knuckles white, hoping the sailors will assume he's drunk or seasick or both. He prays that the One Abandoned prince will stay below with the crew and his wine flask. He closes his eyes, facing the sea.

He focuses on repairing the walls, blocking out the voices that alternately scream and whisper through memory. He sets wards against the past, not the future.

"Good evening, thief," a soft murmur curls in his ear. The ship bucks and Orlando stumbles, lithe heat against him.

 _Not that good a thief_. The ship crashes down and William is gone.


	33. Granola - Billy/Dom

It's about balance these days, accepting life in joy and sorrow, stillness and turmoil. The world spins around Billy in a dizzying rush, driving him to seek peace.

He's taken to savoring the early tranquility. He watches Dominic glowing pink and golden in the sun, working through his morning regime on the smooth planks of the deck. Dominic knows the value of routine. He rolls up the mat, props it by the sliding door, and snags a bowl of cereal before bestowing a kiss on Billy, quiet by the window.

Billy tastes almonds and honey, the bitter and the sweet.


End file.
